After Itaru Sasaki’s cousin died of cancer, Sasaki turned to a discarded phone box he’d placed in his garden as a way to connect to his beloved relative. Following a devastating earthquake in northeast Japan in 2011, Sasaki moved the phone box to a public spot so others could do the same, spawning a worldwide movement of ‘wind phones’.
In an age of whatsapp and video calls,, it might seem peculiar to spot a rotary dial telephone in a public setting, park or nature spot. But if you do, it’s most likely being used to communicate with someone we’ve lost.
Known as wind phones, these vintage devices have become a way of feeling connected with deceased loved ones. Their origin is credited to a Japanese man named Itaru Sasaki, a garden designer living in Ōtsuchi in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture. News reports say that Sasaki originally obtained a discarded telephone box, brought it home and placed it in his garden.
After his cousin died of cancer, Sasaki instinctively turned to this phone booth to grieve, envisioning himself talking to his late relative; he named his device, ‘Kaze no Denwa’, which translates to ‘Phone of the Wind’. But after a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan’s Tōhoku region in 2011, Sasaki reportedly moved his phone booth to a public spot so that his neighbors and other local people could use it too.
Word about Sasaki’s wind phone spread through social media and resulted in countless articles, videos, and interviews with Sasaki, introducing the concept worldwide. It also inspired others to build or install their own phone or booth. And that’s what Amy Dawson did.
Dawson, a mother of three and retired teacher, is the founder of My Wind Phone, an online resource mapping wind phone locations across the globe. Through this platform, Dawson continuously pins new sightings and updates any changes.
In April 2020, Dawson lost her daughter, Emily, after a prolonged illness. Unable to honor Emily’s life publicly amid the pandemic-related shutdown, something sparked a reminder in Dawson about wind phones. “We had heard of it prior to her passing, but something brought it back into my mind,” she recalls. “I started reading about it, and then I started looking for one near us, and I couldn’t find one.”
“I think that continuing to call them [loved ones] is very therapeutic. I would say it’s not therapy, but it’s therapeutic, and it’s another grief tool.”
- Amy Dawson, founder of My Wind Phone
Meanwhile, Dawson had been reading about grieving in Japanese culture, which emphasises continuing connections between the living and the deceased. “They believe in the transformation of your relationship with the person that died, so they’re not just ‘gone’,” Dawson tells me. “That helped me to think that my daughter wasn’t just gone. She was still with me, and that I could continue my relationship with her.”
Through My Wind Phone, Dawson receives many reader queries and sightings about wind phones—there’s even a corresponding Facebook group where members post about their experiences, grief and related topics.
Often set up as a phone booth, a wind phone is disconnected from any actual networks, but people use it like a regular telephone to express thoughts or feelings, a safe space to grieve. “Calling somebody we love is something we do so regularly,” Dawson says. “When they die, I think that continuing to call them is very therapeutic. I would say it’s not therapy, but it’s therapeutic, and it’s another grief tool.”
On the My Find Phone website, Dawson has a subpage advising on starting a wind phone, especially with local approval. Early on, Dawson placed a wind phone along a wooded trail area that ended up being removed without her knowledge. “If you’re putting it anywhere, that’s not your private property, you need to get permission, because if it gets taken down, it’s heartbreaking.”
While a public area is common, some have opted to install a wind phone on their private property for their own use. And some wind phones are even built in a person’s memory. In Wisconsin’s Door County, Keith Mellen and his family installed a wind phone in Isle View Park in Ellison Bay in November 2024 in memory of his son, Ryan, who died by suicide in 2023.
In January 2024, Keith gave a presentation on his proposed wind phone at a parks and recreation meeting in Wisconsin’s Liberty Grove. “They seemed to like the idea but they didn’t have a 100 percent understanding of what it was,” Keith tells me. So he sent them the weblink to My Wind Phone.
Mellen, who owns a machine shop, worked with one of his employees on the blueprint. The completed project involves a 1940s-era desk phone within a wooden phone box, and a banner reading ‘In Loving Memory of Ryan Mellen.’ It also lists the number of a mental health hotline. Mellen’s daughters have added in crochet hearts with uplifting messages. “That site is visited; that phone is used. It’s absolutely amazing,” says Keith.
Other wind phone locations range from places of worship to public gardens and libraries. Lanpher Memorial Library in Hyde Park, Vermont, welcomed a wind phone in fall 2022, with a dedication ceremony the following May. It started with its director Amy Olsen reading the fictional children’s picture book, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, in 2019. It made her think that the library would be a good place for a wind phone. Constructed by a local builder, the library’s wind phone is paired with a rock garden. Folks were invited to paint ‘memory rocks’ to honor people they love who have died.
Olsen estimates that the wind phone is used several times a week. “One woman told us that as she was saying goodbye to her dying friend, she said: ‘I’m going to call you on the Wind Phone’. And her friend said: ‘You better! I look forward to it!’”
Wind phones have become a lifeline for many people. For Dawson, her wind phone helps her maintain her relationship with her daughter Emily, and it’s a reminder of why she set up My Wind Phone to help others. “Wind phones have really taught me that Emily is missing from my life physically, but she’s not missing from my life emotionally or spiritually. She’s always with me.”
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Dividing her time between New England and New York City, travel and culture writer Michele Herrmann's bylines have appeared in BBC Travel, Orbitz, Travelocity, amNewYork and Budget Travel.
